Menu

greed

Most people would know of the existence of darknet markets with the recent revelations of Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road. In more recent news, Utopia, another darknet market, has once again been the focal point of police seizures and arrests. In both cases, there was a hire for assassination, which is an unapologetic form of violence and mayhem that strips the foundation and concept of freedom.

However, the officials did not take action because of these poor choices. They target these markets as a form of control over society: to deprive social freedom of access to information and trade. In more than several occasions, I find that many of these members of the darknet community are no different from anyone else in the world. They are simply people who wish to acquire certain things deemed illegal by a state simply at whim.

Why is it some things are legal and others are illegal? Votes. The Government wants to show and exercise control over the public to exhibit the facade that society, without them, would be in chaos. However, communities formed without a totalitarian Government have often proved to be stronger and close-knit than those dictated. These members of the darknet are not Gollums of society, but instead, are just like every other person out there. The only difference is they seek freedom.

Why should the Government decide which substances are illegal or legal to smoke, when those choices are made without the precedence of any substantial reasoning? Marijuana is hazardous to your health, but smoking cigarettes is not? Reality is, people should have freedom of right to choose and access what they wish to acquire, as long as it does not infringe on another’s freedom. If one person wanted to buy cigarettes, they are educated on the substance, and the choice to purchase is for them to decide. This should apply to everything.

If a commodity exists and provided by one person for another who demands it, they should be free to make that decision. Life is about choices. Freedom is about choices. Why does the Government aim to strip these choices?

Why can the Government decide which medicines are legal and illegal? Sometimes one medicinal drug share near exact qualities and risks as another, yet the Government decides to ban one and not the other. The reasoning is greed; the Government is paid to create bills that accept certain products of one pharmaceutical instead of another because one has more money. It is a form of control over the public motivated by greed.

This is why Governments target darknet markets. Their aim is to remove the network that undercuts their regulations and interferes with their financial gains. In the forums of darknet markets, there are doctors giving advice, people sharing stories to motivate each other, and members offering crisis hotlines to aid in depression. Does the darknet community sound like a community of crime as envisioned by the public? The Government has simply called out wolf in the face of the public sheep, when in reality, the real danger is the one crying wolf.

Beware of the Government as they stand watch over you, strip you of your rights, and keep you from earning a survivable income. The corrupt and deceitful members of the Government can only stand tall on top of the pedestal that is our backs as long as we allow them to. Demand justice. Demand the Government to relinquish their balls and chains wrapped around our legs. The darknet community is not composed of ‘criminals’, but of a community seeking to have their freedom and justice reprieved in the face of dictatorial oppression; freedom is a necessitated basic right entitled to every single individual in the world.